Angkor Wat and Angkor Archaeological Park
Exploring Angkor Wat – one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia – and the temples and shrines at Angkor Archaeological Park has always been big on my travel wish list.
So, when the backpacking husband and were travelling in Asia and we had the opportunity to travel to Cambodia on a ‘visa run’ from Thailand, we flew into Cambodia’s northern province of Siem Reap.
Siem Reap is the gateway to The UNESCO Angkor Archaeological Park.
I was excited for the trip and in great anticipation of a ‘tomb raider’ style adventure exploring the many of the temples and shrines in the Angkor Archaeological Park.
I was also looking forward to having a spiritual appreciation of what is after all the largest religious monument in the world.
I do love exploring ancient temples having experienced many while travelling in Thailand – and as readers of my (affiliate link to Amazon) Backpacking Housewife Books already know – I’m always happy to be blessed by a monk!
A THOUSAND BUDDHIST AND HINDU TEMPLES AND SHRINES
It is said there are around a thousand ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples and shrines from the era of the Khmer Empire (9th to the 15th centuries) in the area that have been reclaimed from the jungles of the surrounding area.
These include the famous Temple of Angkor Wat and, ‘The Great City’ and centrepiece at Angkor Thom with the magnificent Bayon ‘Temple of Faces’.
We planned to spend five days in Cambodia. Three days exploring Angkor Wat and the Angkor Archaeological Park.
And, as we happened to be in Siem Reap in early April – when April and May are the hottest months in Cambodia and temperatures are often around 40 degrees C – we planned to spend two days relaxing at our hotel pool and spa.
WHERE TO STAY IN SIEM REAP CAMBODIA
We stayed at Memoire d’Angkor Boutique Hotel and we booked using (affiliate link) Booking Dotcom.
Our room was clean and comfortable and the hotel is in a great location.
There was always a tuktuk waiting outside to take us where we wanted to go and that’s how we found our wonderful driver for the days we wanted to explore Angkor Wat and the Angkor Archaeological Park.
I recommend that, like us, you get yourself a tuktuk driver for each of your exploration days and keep your walking confined to around the temples.
Your driver should first take you to the official ticket office where you can buy the tickets you need to explore Angkor Wat and the Angkor Archaeological Park.
NOTE: You can only buy your tickets from the Angkor Ticket Office (Angkor Enterprise) and any tickets bought anywhere else will be invalid.
You can get a one day, a three day, or a seven day pass.
We bought a three day pass at (price at time of writing) $62 USD each.
You should not underestimate how large the Angkor Archaeological Park is because it is a VAST area spread over four hundred sq/km of mostly jungle terrain.
Not sure how to imagine 400 sq/km?
Well, I’m from Scotland and the whole of Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital, only measures 264 sq/km.
If you are from the USA, as a comparison, Disney World in Florida is only 101 sq/km.
So, you get the gist, Angkor Wat and The Angkor Archaeological Park is HUGE.
HOW MANY DAYS ARE NEEDED TO EXPLORE ANGKOR WAT AND ANGKOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK?
You certainly need to allocate at least one whole day just for exploring Angkor Wat.
Then, there’s the ancient walled ruined city of Angkor Thon, for which I would allow at least another full day.
Then there’s the smaller temples and shrines like the incredible Ta Thom Temple – of Tomb Raider fame – located outside the walls of the larger sites and in the midst of steamy jungle.
Okay – let’s go tomb raiding!
Travel with me to the awesome Angkor Wat and Angkor Archaeological Park!
THE TEMPLE OF ANGKOR WAT
It’s useful and interesting to know a little about the place you are visiting and I think the first thing is to appreciate that Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world.
Secondly, that its existence and the many works of art on site are all mind-blowingly ancient and authentic.
It’s therefore no wonder that In 2023 Angkor Wat officially became a Wonder of the World.
The temple’s layout is precisely oriented to the west and is also aligned with the spring equinox.
The dimensions of its architectural elements are thought to be cosmologically significant to represent an earthly model of the universe.
The temple’s stone hallways are decorated with the longest continuous bas-relief sculptures and carvings in the world to include the famous scene of Churning of the Ocean of Milk from Hindu mythology.
Although the temple was originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu, Angkor Wat gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple.
Angkor Wat is now the most famous icon of Cambodia.
It is depicted on its national flag and is the country’s top tourist attraction.
THE CITY OF ANGKOR THOM
The ancient ‘Great City’ of Angkor Thom is set in a square site with a high wall and a moat.
An entry tower and a small temple known as “Prasat Chrung” which has a lotus shaped top stands at each corner of the wall.
The South Gate of the Great City also embraces the religious significance with carvings again depicting faces and elements of Buddhism and Hinduism.
A serpent spreads its nine heads in the shape of a fan at the beginning of the long causeway, which is lined by a row of mythical stone figures representing demons on the right side and deities on the left, that lead to each entry tower.
These figures of over one hundred beings guard and protect Angkor Thom.
THE TEMPLES OF ANGKOR THOM
There are seventy-two temples and shrines within the Angkor Thom complex and, of course, without several months to spend ‘temple bagging’ you’d need to trust your research or preference or the recommendations of your tuktuk driver or temple guide to pick and choose the ones to visit during your visit.
Depending on the time of day and indeed the time of year, the Angkor Archaeological Park will be busy with tourists, so patience is a must when waiting to climb steps and in snapping photos for your social media or blog.
Luckily, as April is very much the hot season, we had many of the smaller temples and shrines at Angkor Thom to ourselves.
Ta Phrom
The jungle temple of Ta Phrom is famous as a location in the Tomb Raider movie starring Angelina Jolie.
It was built in the mid-12th century by King Jayavarman VII and dedicated to his dear mother.
Ta Phrom has been left by archaeologists in its natural state and, to this day is still held in an overgrown jungle stranglehold by the giant roots of fig, banyan, and kapok trees.
It is a truly amazing experience to sit amongst the ruins of this temple and see all these long established tree roots twisted around the ancient stones and giant branches like limbs climbing over the roof structures.
It’s also incredible sight to see carved stone faces enveloped peeking out at you from the jungle foliage.
Bayon Temple
The Bayon Temple was built as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King and nearly 100 years after Angkor Wat.
It is located in the exact centre of The Great City of Angkor Thom.
Over 2000 large faces carved on the Beyon Towers give this temple its imposing character and it is assumed that the four faces on each of the towers are images of the king.
The attributes of the king’s face – his broad forehead, his downcast eyes, flaring nostrils and his lips that curl upwards at the ends – reflect the ‘Smile of Angkor’.
Baphuon Temple
The Baphuon Temple, built in the mid-11th century, it is a three-tiered ‘golden mountain’ temple with a steep staircase in pyramid style that is dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva.
The temple was also converted into a Buddhist temple in the late 15th Century.
A reclining Buddha that is nine meters tall and seventy meters long was added to the west side of the temple around this time.
This temple has been restored over the years by teams of dedicated archaeologists.
I found that the view from the top of the staircase is well worth the climb.
Terrace of Elephants
The Terrace of Elephants was constructed in the late 12th century by King Jayavarman VII.
The original structure was used as a viewing platform for the king to welcome home his victorious armies from battles and it can be found in the Royal Square of Angkor Thom.
A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF ANGKOR
I think it’s important to have a certain amount of knowledge about the historical sites you are visiting in order not only to fully appreciate them but to fix in your mind a timeline of the history in order to reflect on the perspective of time.
So, to save you the trouble of searching, I’ve included below a concise and interesting history and timeline of dates and facts that I have discovered and found fascinating about the ancient Kingdom of Angkor.
A TIMELINE OF DATES AND FACTS ON THE KINGDOM OF ANGKOR
Around 800 AD a powerful regional king named Jayaraman II, who was considered divine and ‘God like’, founded the Kingdom of Angkor.
Three hundred years later, at the height of Angkor’s dominion over Southeast Asia between 1113 and 1150 AD, King Suryavarman II ruled and during his reign he ordered the construction of Angkor Wat as a shrine to the god Vishnu.
The other great king of Angkor was Jayaraman VII, who in 1181, initiated the building of The Temple City of Angkor Thom.
This temple city was enclosed by a square wall more than seven miles long and about 26 feet high.
In its centre is the Bayon Temple with its 54 towers and carved into each of the tower’s four sides is a face.
Angkor’s temples were documented and partially restored in the 1850/60s by European explorers.
After the fall of the Khmer Rouge and the end of the Civil War in the 1980s, Angkor became a focal point of the rebuilding efforts in Cambodia.
Today, tourism generated by Angkor is a vital source of income but it must be noted that the millions of tourists who visit Angkor Archaeological Park each year do add to the escalating threat to the integrity of the temple structures and to the ecological balance of park itself.
This issue is an ongoing concern for UNESCO who in 2022 implemented a case study for sustainable tourism to protect local business and the integrity of this World Heritage Site.
THE KINGDOM OF ANGKOR REDISCOVERED
Over thousands of years, many adventurers, naturalists, and explorers have been credited with ‘rediscovering’ the Kingdom of Angkor.
Yet, it is also assumed that Angkor Wat and the other Angkor Temples were being cared for by the Buddhist monks, who are credited for keeping them reasonably intact throughout history.
During the 15th and 16th centuries various Spanish missionaries left reports about their visits.
In the mid-16th century, while hunting elephants, the Portuguese Diego de Couto described coming across temples and city ruins.
In 1603 the Spaniard Gabriel Quiroga wrote: “In 1507 a city was brought to light that had never been seen or heard of by the natives”.
In 1632, Japanese writings were found on a pillar in Angkor Wat and sometime between 1632 and 1636 another Japanese man, Kenryo Shimano, drew a very detailed map of the temple.
In the 16th century a Khmer court returned briefly to Angkor to restore it as a Buddhist shrine
Then, in 1860, a Frenchman, Henri Mouhot, with the help of French missionary Father Charles-Émile Bouillevaux, was famously credited with the discovery of the “lost city of Angkor” on the publication of his travel journal.
Mouhot’s journal was published in 1863, two years after his death at the age of 35, and it made him posthumously famous.
He told the world of a great temple lost and then consumed by the jungle in deepest Cambodia. His descriptions were excitingly romantic and adventurous.
He said “One of these temples, a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo, might take an honourable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome”.
I can only imagine the scene back then when stone statues of deities and the faces of sculptures peeped out from branches and vines and creepers to hint at the ancient long lost wonder that lay all around.
You can certainly get a sense of this wonder when visiting Ta Prohm Temple with its invasion of giant trees and twisted roots that are wrapped around centuries old stones.
TIPS ON WHAT TO WEAR AT THE ANGKOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK
Cambodia is a conservative country and all the temples are important religious sites so you should dress respectfully or you will be refused entry.
I suggest you wear a cotton shirt that covers your shoulders and your upper arms and a light skirt or long trousers or capri pants that will cover your knees.
I recommend sturdy comfortable shoes for walking and for climbing steps and tackling uneven ground.
I also recommend wearing a sun hat and sunscreen protection.
I would also advise you to wear an insect repellent and whatever season you visit Angkor Archaeological Park you should carry a water bottle and avoid getting overheated and dehydrated.
THE BEST TIME TO VISIT ANGKOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK
The best time to visit the Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap, Cambodia, is generally during the cool and dry season from November to February when the weather is cooler, making it ideal for exploring the temples of Angkor Wat and other outdoor activities. The daytime temps during this period usually hover around 25°C to 30°C (77°F to 86°F).
Cool and Dry Season (November to February): This is the peak tourist season due to the favourable weather conditions. It’s also a great time for photography as the skies are clear and the light is good for capturing the ancient ruins.
Hot Season (March to May): Temperatures can soar up to 40°C (104°F) during these months. While this is still a popular time to visit, the heat can be quite intense, especially midday. If you visit during this time, plan early morning and late afternoon tours to avoid the hottest parts of the day.
Wet Season (June to October): This is the monsoon season when rainfall is frequent, especially in the afternoons. The advantage of visiting during this period is that the landscape is lush and green, and the tourist crowds are thinner.
Each season has advantages and disadvantages. So, the best time for your visit may depend on your own preferences for weather, crowd sizes, and landscape aesthetics.
Have you visited Angkor Archaeological Park?
Have you been elsewhere in Cambodia?
Is Angkor Wat on your travel wish list?
Let me know. I’d love to hear from you!
Leave a comment in box below.
